Cameron Joseph Baca Gets 51 Years to Life for Molesting Three Boys, Possessing Child Porn

Cameron Joseph Baca, an intramural sports coach convicted of molesting three boys, ages 11 to 13, and for being in possession of more than 2,000 explicit pornographic images and videos of children, was sentenced today to 51 years to life in state prison.

"I trusted you! I loved you like my own children. But you sir are incapable of knowing what love truly is. Instead you were a predator and we were your prey," the mother of one of the San Clemente 29-year-old's victims said during the sentencing hearing.

Baca had befriended the woman's family and earned their trust before doing his dirty deeds.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office statement on the case follows:

November 19, 2010INTRAMURAL COACH SENTENCED TO 51 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR MOLESTING THREE BOYS, AGES 11 TO 13, AND POSSESSING THOUSANDS OF IMAGES OF GRAPHIC CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Cameron Joseph Baca

Courtesy of Orange County District Attorney's Office

SANTA ANA - An intramural sports coach was sentenced today to 51 years to life in state prison for molesting three boys, ages 11 to 13, after befriending their families and spending time alone with the victims, and for being in possession of over 2,000 explicit pornographic images and videos of children. Cameron Joseph Baca, 29, San Clemente, was found guilty by a jury Aug. 5, 2010, of nine felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, four felony counts of distribution of pornography to a minor, one felony count of attempted lewd acts on a child under 14, and one felony count of possession of child pornography.

Between Jan. 2, 2006, and Dec. 18, 2008, Baca molested three boys between the ages of 11 and 13 years old. The defendant met the victims while working as their intramural sports coach for football, lacrosse, and basketball in South Orange County. Baca befriended the families of the victims and groomed the boys by spending time with them, attending their sporting events that he was not coaching, buying them baseball cards, and inviting them to his home for meals and to do various work around the house.

Baca sexually assaulted the three victims including touching their penises and buttocks and engaging in oral copulation. The defendant also showed the victims pornography.

In December 2008, John Doe #1 disclosed the sexual assault against him to his family. Investigation by the Orange County Sheriff's Department revealed that Baca also had two additional victims. In a subsequent search of Baca's home, the defendant was found to be in possession of over 2,000 pornographic images of young children being raped and sodomized. He was also in possession on his computer of over 500 child pornography videos and more than 50 written stories describing adult men, including coaches and babysitters, having sex with young boys.

A mother of one of the victims submitted a victim impact statement to be read at Baca's sentencing today. She wrote, "I trusted you! I loved you like my own children. But you sir are incapable of knowing what love truly is. Instead you were a predator and we were your prey."

Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown of the Sexual Assault Unit prosecuted this case.

Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before "graduating" to OC Weekly in 1995 as the paper's first calendar editor. He has contributed as a freelance editor and writer to several publications and been the subject of or featured in several reports online, in print and on the radio and television. One of countless times he returned to his Costa Mesa, CA, home with a bounty of awards from a journalism competition, his wife told him to take out the trash.